ICYMI: Ranking Instagram's 10 New Updates

Plus 12 alternatives if TikTok and CapCut disappear

Jan 24, 2025

Screenshot of two mobile screens showing Instagram Reels and its new feature Reels with Friends that displays what your friends are watching and liking

ICYMI biz: Last month, I launched a new series for paid subscribers written by some of the most trusted voices in the industry around their area of expertise. Kendall Dickieson kicked things off with How to Run a Social Media Audit.

On Monday, fandom expert Dr. Georgia Carroll will explain the difference between fandoms and brandoms and share tips and case studies (hello, Taylor Nation!) for building successful brand-led communities. Look out for that Monday morning!

Feedback needed: People really seemed to appreciate the ICYMI community “Voices” in Monday’s newsletter. If you have thoughts on how that should be incorporated as a regular feature, how often you’d want to see what your peers think, or to contribute next time, I’d love to hear from you 🙏🏻

⏰ 1-SECOND SUMMARY

Instagram’s latest releases, ranked from top (Edits App) to bottom (Reels With Friends)
TikTok has a 75-day extension to find a buyer or be banned in the U.S.
TikTok: 6 alternatives to the short-form video app
CapCut: 6 alternatives to the video editing app
Pinterest will prompt students to close the app during school
Tumblr, Snapchat and Substack are just some of the platforms launching new initiatives to attract TikTok “refugees”
Events: Exclusive discounts to upcoming creator and marketing conferences!

💻 ROADMAP

📲 Ranking Instagram’s Latest Updates

Instagram staffers have been logging overtime this year, releasing new updates and insights 24/7. In case you missed any of them, I collected the most important announcements and ranked them based on perceived value to brands, creators and app users.

1) Edits App: Instagram is launching a new video creation app that includes editing, insights, project management capabilities, a better quality camera and the ability to share drafts with friends.

There’s been some skepticism expressed around an Instagram video editing tool because of the limitations of its current Reels editing features. But innocent until proven faulty. I’m looking forward to the March release of this one — the more tools we all have access to, the better.

2) Trial Reels: This lets creators share Reels with people who don’t follow them first to see how new content performs without worrying about how their followers will react.

Technically this was a December release but I still think this has the potential to be an incredibly powerful tool for creators and brands to test new styles of content. It respects the expectations of current followers, while increasing the possibility of reaching new audiences.

3) 2025 Algorithm Priorities: Adam Mosseri’s been posting a LOT recently but it was this content ranking explainer that seemed most useful:

Instagram’s ranking system currently considers three key content signals: Watch Time, Likes and Sends. These are weighted differently depending on whether the people consuming your content follow you or not:

Connected Reach are the accounts that follow you and here is where Likes matter slightly more — does your existing audience appreciate and engage with your content?
Unconnected Reach are the accounts that don’t follow you yet, and so sends are slightly more important for gauging whether your content resonates with new audiences.

4) More Reels Recommendations: Instagram says Reels recommendations will become more prominent across the platform, eg. higher in people’s feeds and search results and will help new creators break through.

Helping brands and creators reach new audiences through Reels is a good thing and indicates a renewed commitment to video in 2025. But given the recent success of Carousels, it’s worth testing different content formats.

5) 3-Minute Reels: US-based Instagram creators can now publish Reels up to 3 minutes long and these longer Reels will be eligible for recommendations.

I’m on the fence here. Meta tried longer videos with IGTV, then yanked the feature, which indicates audiences weren’t interested. Plus Mosseri has said short-form content performs better for shares (sends). I’m not sure who this update benefits other than Meta in their optics battle with TikTok and YouTube.

6) Highlights Tab: Highlights as we know them could soon disappear. Instagram is looking to move Highlights into the grid and add them as a tab.

This could help clean up profile pages and bump up grid content, but it seems inconsequential in the scheme of things and removes a key branding opportunity for creators and brands that previously curated this part of their profile page.

7) A Vertical Grid: Posts on your grid are now vertical instead of square, and Instagram’s added an editing tool so people can adjust their thumbnails to the new grid size.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with this shift — and audiences are unlikely to even notice — but the sudden rollout has disrupted a lot of carefully curated grids.

8) Affiliate links on Facebook: Affiliate links are now more prominently displayed on Reels, videos, photos, and text posts on Facebook to help encourage followers to purchase products through creator links.

This is a good thing for Facebook affiliate creators but who wouldn’t love to see this extended through to Instagram?

9) Breakthrough Bonuses: Meta launched a new bonus program called Breakthrough Bonuses that lets TikTok creators earn up to $5,000 in bonuses over three months for coming over and posting Reels to Facebook and Instagram.

This is unlikely to have a major impact since most of your favorite creators are already cross posting. What’s more interesting is The Information’s report that select creators are getting bonuses ranging from $10,000 to $50,000 per month to make Reels and pledge their loyalty to Meta.

10) Reels With Friends: Five years ago, Instagram had something similar called the Following Activity tab — an area where you could see what your friends were watching and liking.

The idea of connecting with friends over content you enjoy is not inherently a bad feature. But given the current administration and surveillance-like state of the U.S., sharing your content preferences seems unwise for people in marginalized or at-risk groups (LGBTQ, Black people, immigrants, women seeking information on reproductive health, etc). As soon as you’re able, I’d recommend creators, brands and even casual users opt out of this.

The tl;dr - Ranking Instagram’s New Features

Edits App
Trial Reels
Ranking Explainer
More Prominent Reels
3-Minute Reels
Highlights Tab
Vertical Grid
Prominent Affiliate Links
Breakthrough Bonuses
Reels With Friends

Got thoughts on this ranking, let me know what you’d prioritize?

📲 TikTok Updates

TikTok has a 75-day extension to find a buyer or be banned in the U.S. One ByteDance board member hinted at discussions of a deal but there has been no official announcement about the future of the app.
In the meantime, ByteDance apps are not available for download in the Apple App Store or Google Play Store.
The whiplash caused by TikTok’s 14-hour blip wasn’t especially appreciated by most creators or marketers and now people say the vibes are off.

TikTok Alternatives

Instagram, YouTube and Snapchat may be the obvious alternatives but brands and creators are also looking at:

RedNote: The Chinese lifestyle app has been at number 1 in the app store but may not be a sustainable option.
Bluesky: The decentralized social media platform is launching a custom feed for vertical videos.
Substack: The newsletter platform recently rolled out live video, in addition to podcasts and newsletter capabilities.
Circle: It’s an all-in-one community platform for creators and brands, similar to Patreon but it emphasizes courses and events.
Fanbase: A social app that allows creators to monetize their video, images, live, audio and more. Founded by Isaac Hayes III, son of musician Isaac Hayes.
Favorited: A livestream app that’s similar to TikTok Live, it allows creators to monetize their audiences through gifting features.

CapCut Alternatives

Creators and marketers have been swapping lists of alternative video editing apps. These are some of the most common recommendations I’ve seen online:

Adobe Premiere Rush: Recommended by creators. Cost $9.99/month
Inshot: Recommended by almost everyone. Cost $19.99/year
Final Cut: Recommended by Mac users. Cost: $299.99/license
VN Video Editor: Recommended by the media. Cost: $69.99 Pro
Filmora: Recommended by beginners. Cost: $79.99 perpetual
Slate: Recommended by brands. Cost: $99/month

📲 Tumblr Updates

Tumblr is launching Tumblr TV, a new video tab in the app.

📲 X Updates

X is launching a new vertical video feed for U.S. users.

📲 Snapchat Updates

Snapchat launched a new creator campaign, encouraging audiences to “Find Your Favorites” on the platform.

📲 Substack Updates

The newsletter platform ran a TikTok Liberation contest, to drive TikTok creators to sign up. Multi-hyphenate creator Aaron Parnas won the grand prize of $25K.
Substack is launching a $20M Creator Accelerator Fund aimed at helping creators move their paid subscription audience to the platform.

📲 Threads Updates

Adam Mosseri says you’ll soon have the ability to “markup” a post that you’re resharing on Threads.
Threads now allows you to schedule posts.

📲 LinkedIn Updates

LinkedIn’s marketing blog tackled 2025 trends, including this piece they released on the difference between creators and influencers on LinkedIn and this one on thought leadership myths.

📲 Pinterest Updates

Pinterest announced a new test: When kids open the Pinterest app during typical school hours, a prompt will encourage them to close Pinterest and revisit after school (this experiment will run in the US and Canada to start).
Pinterest is encouraging advertisers to shift their spend to its platform, offering exclusive incentives during “these uncertain times.”

📊 DATA DROP

74% of consumers now believe social media has lost the social aspect

-LTK’s 2025 Creator Marketing Trends Report reflecting how attitudes have shifted as social media platforms prioritize interest-based feeds.

🗓️ Upcoming Events

Creator Economy Live, Feb. 4-5 | Las Vegas NV
SXSW, March 7-15 | Austin, TX - I’ll be there, stay tuned for a possible meet-up! Plus if you’re a student or recent graduate, you’re eligible for a SXSW badge discount!
The Platform, March 21 | Pittburgh - I’ll be there moderating along with some elite industry pros like Paramount’s RJ Larese and Duolingo’s Zaria Parvez and creator Abbie Herbert. They even created a special code for the ICYMI community, use LIA10 to get 10% off!
State of Social, Aug. 26-27 | Perth, Australia - I had such a good time last year, the organizer reached out and shared a discount code for anyone attending in person this year, use ICYMI50 for $50 off!

Reminder: Everyone has access to the ICYMI Events Calendar (it’s not just for paid subscribers).

👀 ICYMI: JUST THE HEADLINES

There’s a new entertainment business trade publication dedicated to the creator economy called Like & Subscribe -Axios
MrBeast is still interested in buying TikTok -AP
TikTok ad performance dipped following the 14-hour shut down -Adweek
Meta responds to claims that it's boosting Trump on Facebook, Instagram -NBCNews
X, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube sign EU pledge to tackle hate speech -TheVerge
The NFL, which has deals with X and Meta, told the New England Patriots to shut down their Bluesky account -TheVerge

💘 Women Succeeding

Cassey Ho’s activewear brand Popflex duped its own products for its new Blogilates line at Target -Retail Brew
Creator and brand storyteller Andrea Casanova co-founded Ginger; an AI-powered inbox tool to help filter and negotiate brand deals -GingerInbox
TheSkimm launched a Reproductive Rights dupe after the government’s site went dark, leaving 168 million American women without access to crucial healthcare information -TheSkimm

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